Android is a long way from being overrun with security threats but that hasn’t stopped Trend Micro getting its retaliation in early with a new security app for the platform.

Trend’s Mobile Security for Android features a number of layers of security, mobile users might or might not deem necessary for the modest $3.99 (£2.50) fee.

The app blocks fraudulent websites based on the company’s web reputation database, and claims to stop the install of rogue apps from the Android app store.

It will also filter annoying spam SMS messages and phone calls (which is becoming a problem in the UK), using user-defined block lists, and allows password-protected parental controls to be set, complete with logging.

At the moment, the most useful part of the program is probably the message and call filtering, which allows the user to designate which calls are nuisance and have these automatically rejected. The rogue app feature should become more useful over time.

McAfee already offers a rival app that does much the same job as Mobile Security so the wider question is whether it is worth paying for such an app at all. A number of independents offer a similar set of features, plus remote security wiping, for the same price or even in some cases, nothing.